The University of Connecticut Office of Sustainability has cancelled its annual Haunted Hillside Environmental Education Park (HEEP) event this year due to a limited supply of resources, Experiential Learning Programs Manager Betsy Mortensen said in an interview with The Daily Campus on Friday.
According to the Office of Sustainability’s website, the Haunted HEEP, which was established in 2020, is a free one-mile spooky walk through UConn’s Hillside Environmental Education Park.
“Every year, groups of students plunge into the shadows, daring to explore the creepy scenes set up along the one-mile Red Trial of the HEEP,” according to its website.
The Haunted HEEP, which Mortensen said is a good way to introduce students to green spaces on campus, requires extensive time and resources, including recruiting around 100 volunteers, preparing the trail, advertising and obtaining police officers for crowd control.
Mortensen said the Office of Sustainability is designed to have four executive positions, two of which — an administrative coordinator and a communication, outreach and education coordinator — currently remain vacant, making it difficult to plan and organize an event of this size.
The department is currently staffed by two employees: Mortensen and the Office of Sustainability Director Patrick McKee.
“It’s just a huge undertaking with only half the staff,” Mortensen said. “It’s too much.”
The lack of available staff is in line with UConn’s upper budgetary issues following the lack of funding from the federal government, Mortensen said.
“I know that a lot of departments are facing very similar challenges,” she said.
Mortensen said the decision to cancel the event was made over the summer when the department rehauled its internship program.
The program shifted its focus from whole-campus engagement to independent sustainability projects, Mortensen said. She said the transition will allow the interns to pursue individual sustainability interests.
In 2024, the Haunted HEEP attracted 1,360 guests, nearly double the attendance of the previous year. Of those in attendance, 89% had never been to the HEEP before, and 90% said they intended to visit on their own in the future, Mortensen said.
“It’s a very beloved event,” she said.
Mortensen said the event will return next year depending on the available resources of the department.
The Office of Sustainability is happy to look for partners or student groups who are interested in taking over the event, Mortensen said.